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This blog serves my columns as an archive, a place to add footnotes,data sources and drafts of my weekly 550 word column for the Sky Hi News.(www.skyhidailynews.com) Often these drafts are posted on my Facebook page, The Muftic Forum.. To learn more about the posting subject, click onto the links at the end of the posting.Blog will be on vacation May 28-June 25 2018, with sporadic to no postings during that time.
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Saturday, November 24, 2018

The president who would be king

A version of this was published in the Sky Hi News November 27-28,2018

If there was one reason the Mayflower was the first of many similar boatloads full of settlers who sailed across the Atlantic, it was to escape the tyranny of a government and especially the English King. President Trump has never understood why he cannot rule by decree and executive orders like the kings and dictators he so admires and why the judiciary, Congress and law enforcement cannot be put to use to advance and protect his power and agenda. He tweeted and verbalized an assertion last week that “the judiciary is the greatest threat to our country”, insinuating his edicts were necessary to protect the US from threats to national security.
He has attacked one of the key foundations of American democracy, an independent judiciary. After a record attempt by the Republican controlled Senate to fast track, to change the rules so fewer votes were needed to confirm judges’ appointments, and to pack the courts with conservative think tank recommended nominees, including two vacancies on the Supreme Court, it was just not enough for him. His view of the courts appears to be all judges should be loyal to him and his particular view of executive authority. That is the ultimate expression of his desire to make this country ruled by him, not by the rule of law. The threat of an independent judiciary is not a threat to the country. It is a threat to the power of the wannabe king himself.
Trump has seen some of his executive orders struck down by a judiciary that is sworn to protect the Constitution. Particularly obnoxious to him is the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The infamous Muslim ban was rejected by that court on the basis that it was discriminatory against practitioners of a religion. After some revisions, it was retitled and changed to ban and permit enhanced extreme vetting of those who came from specific countries that may harbor terrorists. Thrown into the list were a few non Muslim countries. It was a sleight of hand that finally enabled the executive order to be approved by the Supreme Court on a 5 to 4 decision in June, 2018.
Trump’s campaign in the 2018 midterms centered around hyping fear and loathing of immigrants of color. To cater to his nationalist core followers, he devised a strategy to stop“caravans” of migrants seeking asylum in the US . The caravan travellers, equal to the same number of students of two large high schools , were comprised of mostly women and children migrants he called “thugs” and disease ridden. The fear of these migrants was raised to near hysteria by his favored media outlets just before the midterm elections. US military intelligence had reported the caravans did not threaten national security, but nonetheless Trump rushed more US troops to the border than we have in Afghanistan. A week before the midterms he announced a plan for an executive order that would rewrite the 14th Amendment to end birthright citizenship. That has not yet been court tested. He followed that strategy up with an executive order forbidding those who reached US soil illegally to qualify for asylum only if they got in line and went through a legal checkpoint. The U.S. Judge in the Ninth Circuit ruled November 19 that federal law clearly states that migrants can seek asylum anywhere on U.S. soil and … “he (Trump) may not rewrite the immigration laws to impose a condition that Congress has expressly forbidden” . Trump called foul and said that Judge was an Obama appointee. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts responded in defense of an independent judiciary: "What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them. That independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.”

An independent judiciary is fundamental to a democracy and to the Constitution's ability to keep abuse of power to protect us from a one person rule..This posting is a focus on one issue, but the issue is one of the three checks and balances pillars written into the Constitution to restrict the power of the federal government...and especially the executive branch and the legislative branch from abusing their powers. . Therefore it is fundamental to democracy. When wannabe tyrants want to grab total control of the reins of government, they wreck an independent judiciary. The most recent example of that is in Turkey where voters approved his consolidation of three branches of government into one and permitted him to appoint all judges without any constraints. What is disturbing is that it was done with their people's permission, which shows how fragile democracy is. It is an idea but is only as good as the people who support it. From Hitler to Putin to Erdogan, all used fear and hatred of ethnic groups (Jews) (terrorists) , or a government and economy in chaos (Putin) . With control of all the levers of government in one hand, any opposition cannot gather enough strength to cause a reversion to democracy peacefully without violence, putsch, war, or revolution.

About Me

Felicia Muftic is a political columnist with the Sky Hi Daily News, Grand County, Colorado. She writes on current events from a pragmatic, fact based, reasoned perspective.
Felicia has nearly 50 years of involvement in politics, finance,and consumer affairs as either a fly on the wall in international, national, state and local levels or a participant.
Parallel to all of this is intense involvement for over 50 years in the the political process, serving in both cabinet and staff in the administration of Mayor Federico Pena . Partially educated in Europe and married to physician-refugee from the Balkans, her interests are not confined to US domestic problems, but she also has a world view and experiences which are often reflected in her columns.
Felicia Muftic es un columnista político del diario Sky News Hola, Grand County, Colorado. Felicia tiene casi 50 años de participación en la política, las finanzas y de asuntos del consumidor, ya sea como una mosca en la pared en la internacional, nacional, estatal y local o de un participante. Para más información, visite www.mufticforum.com